The concept of free software emerged in the year 1983 when Richard M. Stallman launched a project called as GNU, which stands for "GNU is not UNIX". The basic reason behind GNU was to provide the world with a brand new Operating System (OS) as a replacement for UNIX. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 201(c)3 donor supported charity founded in 1985 and is based in Boston, MA, USA. Check http://www.fsf.org for more information.
Recently FSF took a dig at Microsoft's initiative of opening a new research center at New England. If you go to the new research website you will find loads of stuff including pictures of new office and other attractive goodies offered by Microsoft (MS) to Cambridge students check http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/newengland/ for more information. As expected Microsoft wants to attract world's best minds to continue their superiority in Information Technology. I must say MS is trying its level best to save itself from the competitors like Google, Linux and the list goes on & on. But we must remember that as MS products are getting more user friendly the level of abstraction is getting more complex. So if you are a programmer who always wanted to learn more about how the System works then you are at receiving end. The kind of flexibility provided to you by Open Source Softwares is really fantastic, you can change the Source Code and modify the entire piece of Software the way you want. I salute Mr. Stallman for the excellent work he has done in the field of Open Source. Please check this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman if you are really passionate about computers. FSF's campaign of working against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is aimed at targeting all the manufacturers that are trying to bring their DRM-enabled products in the market. I really like the name of the website dedicated to this Anti DRM campaign i.e http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ This website really keeps you updated on the DRM-enabled products.
Recently MS sued TomTom for using its FAT32 file system, this is the first time MS has directly targeted the product which is based on Linux. TomTom has responded by in turn filling a lawsuit against MS accusing MS of infringing on three of the company's in-car navigation system. TomTom decision to give back what it has got from MS is clearly a step further in escalating the tensions between the two. This clearly underlines the fact that MS is scared of the products which has any association with Linux. The recent news of IBM offering $6.4 billion to take over Sun Microsystems is an add-on to the success of Free Software. Well i must say IBM knows how to make money out of the Free Software by providing some additional features to the existing products. The take over will surely give sleepless nights to many in the industry including FSF, but till the time IBM agrees to provide NetBeans, Solaris and MySQL for free as usual we don't have any issues. To end this story i would request all readers of this blog to please visit http://ocw.mit.edu and check out what MIT has in store for the entire world & that too for free :)
Recently FSF took a dig at Microsoft's initiative of opening a new research center at New England. If you go to the new research website you will find loads of stuff including pictures of new office and other attractive goodies offered by Microsoft (MS) to Cambridge students check http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/newengland/ for more information. As expected Microsoft wants to attract world's best minds to continue their superiority in Information Technology. I must say MS is trying its level best to save itself from the competitors like Google, Linux and the list goes on & on. But we must remember that as MS products are getting more user friendly the level of abstraction is getting more complex. So if you are a programmer who always wanted to learn more about how the System works then you are at receiving end. The kind of flexibility provided to you by Open Source Softwares is really fantastic, you can change the Source Code and modify the entire piece of Software the way you want. I salute Mr. Stallman for the excellent work he has done in the field of Open Source. Please check this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman if you are really passionate about computers. FSF's campaign of working against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is aimed at targeting all the manufacturers that are trying to bring their DRM-enabled products in the market. I really like the name of the website dedicated to this Anti DRM campaign i.e http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ This website really keeps you updated on the DRM-enabled products.
Recently MS sued TomTom for using its FAT32 file system, this is the first time MS has directly targeted the product which is based on Linux. TomTom has responded by in turn filling a lawsuit against MS accusing MS of infringing on three of the company's in-car navigation system. TomTom decision to give back what it has got from MS is clearly a step further in escalating the tensions between the two. This clearly underlines the fact that MS is scared of the products which has any association with Linux. The recent news of IBM offering $6.4 billion to take over Sun Microsystems is an add-on to the success of Free Software. Well i must say IBM knows how to make money out of the Free Software by providing some additional features to the existing products. The take over will surely give sleepless nights to many in the industry including FSF, but till the time IBM agrees to provide NetBeans, Solaris and MySQL for free as usual we don't have any issues. To end this story i would request all readers of this blog to please visit http://ocw.mit.edu and check out what MIT has in store for the entire world & that too for free :)
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